Click below to see and hear Erics latest Podcast

Monday, 2 May 2016

"Six European countries reportedly want to maintain border control within the EU beyond the period the Schengen free travel agreement allows for. The measure was imposed in response to the influx of asylum seekers from the Middle East.

Temporary border controls between members of the Schengen treaty can last no longer than for eight months.

Sweden, which has to suspend the emergency measure in June, is advocating the extension of the grace period. Germany, Denmark, Austria, France and Belgium are reportedly also supporting such a move.

The six countries have written a letter to the European Commission requesting to add a six-month extension to measures currently in place, the Local reported. They also want these grace periods to last two years in the future rather than eight months.

Germany’s deadline to abolish border controls comes in May.

Sweden received the largest number of refugees per capita among EU members since they poured into Europe last year. Germany got the largest absolute number.

On Monday, Denmark announced its border control measures would be extended until at least June 2.

Over a million of people from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia arrived in Europe in 2015, making it the biggest migration of people in the region since the Balkan Wars of the 1990s.

Brussels is seeking Turkey’s help to deal with the crisis in exchange for financial aid and political concessions. Critics say the Europeans are compromising their values, as Ankara now has leverage against the EU to make it turn a blind eye on numerous human rights abuses in Turkey"

Volker Gassner of the environmental campaign group Greenpeace holds a copy of the leaked TTIP negotiations during a news conference in Berlin, Germany, May 2, 2016.

REUTERS/FABRIZIO BENSCH

left

1 of 8

right

left

2 of 8

right

left

3 of 8

right

left

4 of 8

right

left

5 of 8

right

left

6 of 8

right

left

7 of 8

right

left

8 of 8

right

left

1 of 8

right

The United States is threatening to prevent the easing of export controls on European cars in order to force Europe to buy more U.S. agricultural products, Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and ARD public broadcaster reported on Sunday.

In talks on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a sweeping U.S.-European free trade deal, the United States has also blocked a European call to replace private arbitration tribunals, responsible for corporative lawsuits, with a public state model, the reports said.

The media outlets said they obtained 240 pages of internal negotiations documents from the environment group Greenpeace. Several people familiar with the negotiations confirmed that the documents were current, the media said.

The documents suggest the United States is putting more pressure on the European Union in ongoing negotiations for a transatlantic free trade deal than previously thought, the media outlets said.

The top negotiators trying to reach agreement on the trade deal avoided agriculture, public procurement and other thorny issues in talks last week.

Instead, Assistant U.S. Trade Representative Daniel Mullaney and European Commission lead negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercera said on Friday, they concentrated on less controversial areas such as small and medium enterprises and technical language.

But both insisted after their 13th negotiating round in New York that they can still reach an agreement this year before U.S. President Barack Obama leaves office in January.

Greenpeace said in a statement it will give a news conference on the documents in Berlin on Monday 0900 GMT.

So much for Obama wanting to do trade deals with big blocs only. I bet Japan has a trade deal with the US covering cars. There are so many Jap cars on US roads.

Vote Leave! We can hardly do worse at the negotiation table than the Swedish Sociology Prof who is in charge of trade negotiations. Mind you they put Cathy Ashton, a jumped up sociologist /social worker, in 'charge' of Foreign affairs. The EU French civil servants like politicos who know nothing of foreign affairs. It saves them lots of difficult questions.T